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The European Environment Agency's latest Air quality in Europe report reveals that, in 2013, air pollution was responsible for 467,000 premature deaths in European cities (Phys.org). The report analysed data from over 400 cities in 41 European countries and found that particulate matter - tiny particles of dust and soot that primarily result from fossil fuels - are a particular hazard to city dwellers' health, entering the lungs to cause respiratory problems and even penetrating the bloodstream. 16 per cent of European urbanites are exposed to particulate levels above EU targets. However, air quality is improving overall, and the report notes that "emissions of the main air pollutants in Europe have declined in recent decades, resulting in generally improved air quality across the region".

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has admitted to surreptitiously editing comments left about him in a subreddit used by supporters of Donald Trump (TechCrunch). Huffman, who goes by spez on the site, wrote that "I messed with the “fuck u/spez” comments, replacing "spez" with r/the_donald mods for about an hour. It’s been a long week here trying to unwind the r/pizzagate stuff. As much as we try to maintain a good relationship with you all, it does get old getting called a pedophile constantly. As the CEO, I shouldn’t play such games, and it’s all fixed now. Our community team is pretty pissed at me, so I most assuredly won’t do this again." The news is the latest in a fraught relationship between reddit users and staff that last year saw the departure of Huffman's predecessor, Ellen Pao.

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Secure messaging service Telegram has expanded into the world of online publishing with a new anonymous blogging platform called Telegraph (VentureBeat). Telegraph doesn't require an account - just visit the site and start typing your article. You'll be able to embed rich content such as videos, tweets and images, and all post-publication editing capabilities are based on cookies stored on your PC - clear those, and neither you nor anyone else will be able to change the article ever again. It's not clear how private Telegraph really is in terms of logging IP addresses and other identifying information, but no personal data is revealed in the published article, making it an appealing option for those who want to say their piece without identifying themselves to the world. However, it's worth noting that, without associated accounts, it'll also be impossible to verify the provenance of articles.

Researchers working with sediment core dating have found that the Antarctic's Pine Island Glacier began melting in the 1940s (BBC). Changes to the immense glacier, which has detached from its ice shelf and contributes to greater sea level rise than any other ice stream melt, were dated by identifying the presence of plutonium traces, the result of atomic bomb tests in the years following the Second World War. Analysis of the sediment layers reveals that warm ocean water first got under the ice shelf in the 1940s, beginning its current decay.

The European Space Agency has announced that the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander probably failed to correctly deploy on the Martian surface due to a momentary error in its navigation system (The Verge). Preliminary results of the investigation found that, after the lander deployed its parachute, the Inertial Measurement Unit that tracks its rotation failed to correctly register a reading, causing the lander to aim for a landing altitude below ground level. The lander was primarily a proof of concept landing system for a more advanced rover due to be launched by the Russian/European venture in 2020. David Parker, the ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration, says that "we will have learned much from Schiaparelli that will directly contribute to the second ExoMars mission being developed with our international partners for launch in 2020."

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A study into canine behaviour has found that dogs appear to have the same kind of 'episodic memory' as humans, allowing them to recall specific experiences and the way they felt and responded to them at the time (Gizmodo). The study, carried out by Claudia Fugazza and her colleagues from the MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Budapest, Hungary, used a 'Do as I Do' trick to show that the dogs were able to recall and later reproduce actions carried out by their owners, such as touching an umbrella. Episodic memory is a possible sign of self-awareness and has previously been identified in other animals, including primates, rats and pigeons. However, this canine test is a far closer approximation of real-world conditions.

More than 70 years since the end of world war two, codebreakers are set to return to Bletchley Park (WIRED). The UK's first National College of Cyber Security is planned to open at the historic site that was once integral in the cracking the Nazi enigma code. The college, which will operate as a boarding school, is being created by a new not-for-profit group that includes leading professionals from the cybersecurity industry. Called QUFARO, the organisation is opening the school for 16 to 19-year-olds. There will also be online offerings from the organisation, executive director and CEO of Cyber Security Challenge UK, Stephanie Daman told WIRED. "We are having a virtual offering planned that will engage with more than 300 people. It will provide online courses and help for teachers, for example, which is hugely lacking at the moment."

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Steam has launched its latest money-sucking sale, along with its new Steam Awards (Ars Technica). Every single title in Steam's catalogue can be voted for in the awards, from hoary old favourites to unfinished Early Access games. The award categories are rather more interesting than your standard "best whatever" formula, too. Instead, you can vote for winners of the "I'm Not Crying, There's Something In My Eye" award and the "Best Use of a Farm Animal" award, and even suggest your own category. Voting - and the sale itself - runs until November 29, and this year's deals include substantial discounts on Steam Link and Controller hardware.

Indie game distribution platform itch.io has released A Good Bundle, a huge collection of indie games to raise money for good causes and "combat some of the ugliness in our world" (PC Gamer). Several tiers are available, from $2 for 89 games, to a full 151 titles for $20 or more. All of the money goes to charity, with the proceeds split between the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. The games include Proteus, The Novelist and Read Only Memories, and the offer runs until November 29.

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Microsoft has released its Solitaire Collection for free on Android and iOS (VentureBeat). The time-wasting classic was first released in 1990 and was a ubiquitous feature of the Windows operating system between versions 3.0 and 7. The mobile incarnation of the collection - which is also available for Windows 10 - includes the original Klondike solitaire game, plus Spider, Freecell, Tripeaks, Pyramid and daily challenge modes.

Google has previously taught its artificial intelligence to play games, and it's even capable of creating its own encryption. Now, its language translation tool has used machine learning to create a 'language' all of its own. In September, the search giant turned on its Google Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) system to help it automatically improve how it translates languages. The machine learning system analyses and makes sense of languages by looking at entire sentences – rather than individual phrases or words. Following several months of testing, the researchers behind the AI have seen it be able to blindly translate languages even if it's never studied one of the languages involved in the translation.

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The nation’s favourite broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough, returned to our screens recently with the launch of Planet Earth II. To celebrate Attenborough and the amazing work he has done over the years, BBC Earth is launching The Story of Life, an app featuring the largest-ever digital release of all his work. The app features more than 1,000 clips from Attenborough’s documentaries of the past 50 years, all in bitesize videos spanning three to seven minutes. You can watch Sir Attenborough’s crafted collections, such as beautiful 'birds of paradise', or search different species or habitats to find all the videos relating to that topic.